What is it about?
We examine how legal culture shapes restorative justice practices in Chile and draw conclusions for expanding restorative justice as a national policy
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Why is it important?
Chile is a country underrepresented by the literature on restorative justice (RJ). There is little research on how to expand RJ as a national policy, as well as, on how legal culture influences RJ practices. We found, among others, that community participation in RJ processes is an element characteristic of common law legal systems, in contrast to civil law legal systems. We found that Chile´s criminal justice system and its RJ practices share elements of both legal systems, and that a national policy for expanding RJ should take account of these legal cultural elements.
Perspectives
I hope this article can be of use for many practitioners and researchers in different countries, specially in Latin America, who are interested in expanding restorative justice and find little guidance for that specific purpose in the literature. Also, I think it is fascinating to explore how and why restorative justice processes reflect legal culture, and the implications of this.
Alejandra Diaz
Universidad San Sebastian
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Restorative justice and legal culture, Criminology & Criminal Justice, September 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1748895818796549.
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